American Notes HUNTING

Though there are no documented cases of wild bison infecting cattle with brucellosis (which causes cows to abort their calves), Montana in 1985 decided to fight the disease by letting hunters kill bison that wandered out of Yellowstone National Park. The tactic aroused a national outcry. In the worst slaughter, two winters ago, hunters killed 569 of the park's 2,700 bison.

This year Governor Stan Stephens hopes to defuse some of the public anger when the shooting resumes. Under his new plan, hunters will be permitted to shoot only straying male bison. Federal park rangers and state game wardens will kill the females, and the meat will be distributed to needy people. Bison calves will be captured and neutered, then sold at public auction. The proceeds will pay for the butchering of their mothers.

Calling the plan "bizarre," Don Bachman of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition predicts that the complaints will be just as loud this year. The hunt's organizers, he says, "have really stepped in the buffalo chip."